Shining Star’s commitment to diversity is grounded in our primary commitment to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our desire to become a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community stems from our desire to be faithful to the God who was “in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” (2 Cor 5:19)
At Shining Star, we believe that all students have the ability to succeed, but we also know that the structures of racism in our society and in our city limit their opportunities to do so. It is our responsibility as educators to lift up our scholars and give them the tools they need to succeed despite these inequities. Throughout our work, we celebrate the excellence of our scholars and wonder at their resilience and strength.
As a school community, we are better for the diversity of our backgrounds and experiences. All of our differences and all of our similarities come together in service of our students, and we know they benefit from knowing and learning from all of us. And yet we know we must continually strive to promote diversity, equity and inclusion within our school community. To us, this means we will:
- Ensure our students can see themselves in the identities of staff at all levels of our organization,
- Seek out voices from the communities we serve to shape the direction of our organization,
- Build our cultural competency as a team to understand our own biases and to overcome them through regular training and dialogue,
- Actively work against implicit bias in our hiring and other talent activities, and
- Identify partner organizations that can help us support our students as they navigate a society where systemic racism still exists and causes deep pain.
We know that we each enter this work from a unique place, and that we will not achieve perfection, but we strive to hold one another accountable for doing the work. We do this in service of our students, in the hope that they will inherit a more equitable society.
Everything is included in the scope of God’s reconciling love in Christ. That is the shining fact at the center of the Christian faith, and it is the ultimate source of Shining Star’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.